We woke up today at 6:30 and started packing up. All was good until we made our first stop about two miles up the trail. While sitting down for a break Smudgy Cheeks and Bubbles got into a fight. It was intense and Smudgy Cheeks turned around and walked south down the trail.
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| The perfect place to stop and rest our tired feet |
After Smudgy Cheeks left we took it slow because Bubble’s feet were hurting and we are sad that the Three Amigos split up. We started as a team and wanted to finish as a team. We knew that there was a chance that one, or even two of us, might get hurt along the trail, and need to end our hike, but we didn’t think it would happen like this. However, as sad as we are, we knew that we couldn't sit around and be sad all day. We had to keep going because we are on a mission.
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| Bubbles LOVES evergreens! |
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| It's great walking through all of this history! |
We hiked up to the Washington Monument. Unfortunately, the monument was closed because lightning struck it last year and they are renovating it for safety. As we were talking I heard leaves rustling and saw a huge black snake. As I was taking video and pictures of the snake it moved extremely fast toward a rock. Suddenly, a chipmunk took off!! He got away. The chipmunk won today! Even though it was awesome seeing the snake, I got chills because I know there are snakes everywhere on the trail. I decided we are going to be sleeping in our tent with it zipped all the way up from now on!!!
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| The snake was about five feet long! |
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| Washington Monument built in 1827 atop South Mountain |
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| The rock scrambles are going to be everywhere pretty soon! |
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| View from the Washington Monument |
At one point in the day we got a phone call from Johnny (one of Bubble’s brothers) saying he was in the area. Having Johnny call us, and meet us on the trial, really helped us get back into the groove of things. It helped us to get out of our funk because we knew that Johnny would help bring our attitude back to where it needed to be!
When Johnny met us in a parking lot he had food for us! We had some drinks and ate Subway like homeless people! We ate it so fast he even tried to give us his sub! We had cookies and chips too.
We got into the car and tried to look for Smudgy Cheeks. It was a big let down when we found out that he had already left.
It felt so weird to be in a car! It’s only been a few weeks but I can’t remember the last time that I went so long without being in a vehicle. We went to Walmart and resupplied. We were so happy to get our little bottle of Sriracha and more food. Johnny wasn’t planning on camping with us so he bought a sleeping bag to cowboy camp in front of the fire, like a champ!
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| We finally got our Sriracha |
While walking from the AT parking lot to the shelter we came to the bridge where Poppa Lip had a bunch of Boy Scouts on a hike. His Scouts spent a lot of time getting trucks to honk. It was good because we felt like kids again and we got a lot of cars and trucks to honk!
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| Poppa Lip's favorite bridge |
We were so looking forward to our evening at camp with Johnny. When we got to camp we set up our tent, started a blazing fire, and spent time catching up.
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| Bubbles and Johnny |
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| I love it out here! |
Day: 19
Miles hiked: 7.5
Total Miles hiked on the trail: 184.7
Bears: 0
Butterfly: 7
Chipmunk: 2
Crawfish: 1
Deer: 20
Really Big Dog: 1
Mouse: 1
Nest of bugs: 1
Skunk: 1
Snail: 1
Snake: 1
Squirrels: 11
Turkeys: 4
Turtles: 107
Woodpecker: 1
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